Rob has been working with Year 5 pupils from St Clements Primary school Leysdown to come up with some initial ideas for the illuminations. Along with RPSB Officer Rolf Williams the children spent two days exploring their natural beach environment and considering plans and lighting for the seafront in Leysdown.

Welcome to Leysdown, flags, coloured lighting, seating and a well looked after space all featured in their designs.

The Isle of Harty Trail is a 9.5 Km cycle route links Leysdown  with the Isle of Harty, with an additional short circular route around Harty.  The cycle routes starting point is the Spinney in the heart of Leysdown village with the resting point commission sited at the mid point way of the route at the RSPB Capel Fleet Raptor Viewing point and a smaller resting point on the border of the Natural England Nature Reserve.

The Raptor site was chosen by Alun as a dynamic space to place the seating guaranteeing views of the Marsh Harrier and as a place to sit and reflect the landscape.   The resting area featuresa two-element structure, providing comfortable, hollow saddle carved and welcome seating in the inspired form of bird wing feathers. It also provides a sculptural centre piece installation that is visible from many directions.

Some of the images show the work being made in Alun’s studio before installing.

Artist Alun Heslop was commissioned to design and produce a sculptural feature for the garden and has taken his inspiration from the razor fish shells found on the beach. The shapes are also reminiscent of aerofoil sections.

These pictures show the work in Alun’s studio,  the sculptures being placed in the garden design and a year on with roses blooming.

Laura is a printmaker and works with enamel, she has collaborated with a company called AJ Wells who specialise in enamel signs and are well known for producing signage for the London Underground.

The new village sign is bright, robust and striking, with hand painted and silkscreen imagery.

Here are some images of Laura working on the sign.

The main image is the final design.

To be a bird with beating wing

To fly to Leysdown with loves song and sing

A town where you can be yourself

Or hide away on life’s lost shelf

Nature likes Leysdown with wildlife birds

And naturists to boot

Baring all in there birthday suits

From Barton’s Point to Shellness Bay

All who come here enjoy their stay

Life’s good in Leysdown town

Lots of smiles and rarely a frown

Migrating birds and local breeds

Provide all of the twitchers needs

The first aeroplane took off from Leysdown town

And in the history books they’ve written that down

According to my mate the first pig flew here

Its amazing the stories you can hear

I like the pebbles and the golden sand

Life in Leysdown is so grand

Shellness a place to behold

On a sunny day or even when it’s cold

To the left we have Essex and Southend

And on the right the Kent coast just around the bend

Come on we’re Sheppey a different piece of ground

A little bit different from the rest of England’s towns

We’re an island, an open space

Where lives run at a very local pace

Buses aren’t our best forte

But I’m told you can walk to Sheerness in a day

Bus car or Shanks’s pony

Leysdown for me is the one and only

The ink black sky

Still has the moon full and high

Jon Brown

Stan spoke about the light railway ‘Sheppey Light’ that would run from Queenborough to Leysdown.  The line was originally built to transport milk, travelling around the island to collect the full milk churns from the dairy farmers.  Eventually it became popular by Holidaymakers who would use the line to get to Leysdown.  The car’s popularity brought its downfall and it was closed in the late 50’s/ early 60’s.

Cissie remembers taking the train to Leysdown as a little girl on Sunday school outings organised by The Bethal Church in Queenborough.  They would all go down to the beach.  Lesdown village at the time had a café, a post office and one shop.

Sylvia would take an annual visit to Leysdown on August Bank holidays with the Salvation Army for Harvest collection.  They would visit the caravan sites collecting donations and in the afternoon picnic on the beach and play games on the playing fields.  Open-air meetings were also arranged by the Salvation Army on the Spinney.

Gwen worked in Leysdown over 45 years ago in the summer holidays in a café called Evelyn’s (which is now called the Bakery).  It was a very busy time and she would take her son David with her and Evelyn would look after him while she worked. She remembers someone driving down from the local nudist beach into Leysdown village to buy a sandwich with no clothes on!

Jack would go to Leysdown shrimping, it was the best place to get bait for fishing.

Rosa has met some really interesting groups and individuals and we have really enjoyed reading and listening to the stories.

As you can see we need some images for some of the stories – so please get in touch if you have any we can use.

The pupils from the Abbey Family Unit enjoyed an introduction to Ed’s work as a documentary photographer, learnt about the history of documentary photography and were then taken on two field trips to Leysdown Village centre. The students embraced the challenge, approaching locals to take portraits, ducking in and out of cafes and shops politely asking if people minded having their photographs taken. These edited photographs provide a social document of Leysdown and the people that live and work there.

History students from Minster Academy have also had the opportunity to gain interviewing and recording skills from BRFM presenter and artist Daniel Nash. They have worked with residents from Age Concern, reflecting on past Leysdown images and memories.

Thanks to: Daniel Nash

Contributing residents:

Norman Long, Mrs Birken, Mrs Shannon, Faye Fisher, Jenny Walker, Dawn Lynch, Janice Burville, Jenny Lerwell, Sheila Byrne,